Death's Breath Farming Guide - Optimised Skills for Barbarian

Only at the start of the game you will have a high demand for Death's Breath. Later you find enough by playing the game and killing more elites at higher difficulty. So this guides will help you at the start of the game if you want farm explicit Deaht's Breath. Later after you have better gear there will be not such a high demand until Blizzard change anything. :)

Information about drop rate and other crafting materials you can find here.


Death's Breath can be obtained by killing elites.
Therefore we need a spot with a fast and easy killable elite at the highest difficulty level.

Preparation
1. Start Campaign Mode Act 1 - Quest 6.2 Speak with Alaric - at normal difficult
2. Go into Festering Woods
3. Search for "Warriors Rest"
4. Teleport to town and leave game

Now start game again at higher difficulty.
I suggest a minimum of Torment I, also with bad starting gear.
You can optimize your skills only for this one elite pack.

Run
1. Take TP to Warriors Rest
2. Kill elite pack with optimized skills.
3. Pick up all items.
4. Teleport to town.
5. Leave game and repeat.


Optimized Skillset for Barbarian with starting gear

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#WlXPTk!hYXe!cYcZYb

L - Frenzy - Maniac
If you have surviving problems you can use smite for stun.
R - Avalanche - Tetonic Rift
If you have surviving problems you can use Glacier for freeze.
1 - Leap - Death from Above
To Jump into the elite pack.
2 - Wrath of the Berserker - Insanity
damage and immun to imparing effects
3 - Earthquake - Molten Fury
aoe damage
4 - Warcry - Invigorate
for better survival

P1 - Unforgiving
P2 - Weapons Master
P3 - Berserker Rage
P4 - Superstition

There are many useful skills. You can experiment by yourself what fits you best.

My gameplay:

Warcry and run until I see elite pack.
Jump into elite pack.
Activate Wrath of the Berserker.
Frenzy to full fury.
Use Jump again.
Use Avalanche and Earthquake.
Then use Jump if I must escape or need a stun to survive.
Finish elite pack with frenzy.

WW / RLTW (Tornado) Basic Guide

There are many players who want to play ww/rltw and don't know the basic about this very popular spec. This guide will help you to learn the basics behind this playstyle.

How does this build work?
We generate fury with critical hits with Battle Rage (Into the Fray).
Further for the start and for situations if we have 0 rage we use bash to generate enough fury.
We should use sprint everytime. With the rune Rune like the Wind (RLTW)  we create tornados behind us. Tornados are the main source for our damage.
We can do the maximum damage with Tornados if we can create them in the middle of a group of monsters and therefore we use Wirlwind (WW) with rune Hurricane.

Skill Calculator

The last skill is free for Overpower or War Cry, depneding on what you need.
War Cry - Impunity
Overpower - Crushing Advance
Overpower - Killing Spree
Overpower - Momentum

The last passive skill is also free. Bloodthirst or Unforgiving are the most common 3rd passives.


Playstyle
To make this build work on your favour you must play aggressive with no breaks You must spending your fury, that you can generate new fury which is important to maintain Wrath of the Berserker (WotB), but at the end of the fight you should have a full fury bar to sprint to the next group of monsterst and to start whirl around.


Damage
As already mentioned our main source for our damage are Tornados.

Tornadoes do 20% main hand weapon damage per tick.
When dual-wielding, tornado tick frequency depends on the attacks per second (aps) of the last weapon swing before using Sprint.

This means only the mainhand dps is important. We can use offhands with very low dps.
We only use our offhand for bash or ww and we only use this skill to generate fury or to positon our tornados.

Further information about our Tornados.

Charakter screeen dps is never important if you play ww/rltw. You must use a tool like this.
d3rawr.com

Profile Import
Skill Damage

Then you get this:

Note this dps.
Then change your gear in the calculator. Calculate again and compare it with your current dps.


Weapon choices
There are 3 different weapon choices for mainhand (MH) and offhand (OH).
Echoing Fury is a very good weapon, because of the additional attacks per second, but if you wear it in your mainhand it must have low fear or you loose too much real damage, which isn't shown in any calculation. Also a Stone of Jordan with cold damage helps to negate the fear effect.

1. MH: Echoing Fury + OH: fast weapon
Echoing Fury with high dps, low fear and socket, (if you can afford with strength and critical hit damage or ls)
Fast weapon (dagger) with loh or ls, critical hit damage, socket.

2. MH: mace + OH: Echoing Fury
Mace with very high dps and socket
Echoing Fury with socket and critical hit damage or ls and with high +attacks per second (0,25 aps is maximum)

3. MH: mace + OH: fast weapon
Mace with very high dps and socket
Fast weapon (dagger) with loh or ls, critical hit damage, socket.


How to get life back? Lifesteal (LS) or Life on Hit (LoH)
Lifesteal is dependant on your damage.
Life on Hit is dependant on your amount of attacks.

This means with low damage you should focus on LoH on your gear and with higher damage LS works better.

A good guide for this you can find here or use http://www.d3rawr.com/d.


Critical hit chance
Critical hit chance is the most important stat. Without this, this build can't work.


Movementspeed
Many people believe with 24% movementspeed (ms) you will spawn a 5th Tornado, but this is not guaranteed. A 5th Tornado can spawn with 0% ms and it can also fail to spawn with 24% ms and wotb up.

But movementspeed is one of the most important stats for farming. Therefore I recommend it.
How you get 24% ms, you find here.


Pickup Radius
Because if we can't loose to much time with traveling back to pick up gold, there are only 2 solutions. We let the gold on the ground or we have a higher pickup radius.



Barbarian Guide Overview

How to get 24% movmentspeed for barbarian?

To solve the problem to reach 24% movement speed (ms) with items, this short guide will help you to find a solution.

There are 4 different item slots which can offer 12% movement speed.

Rare, Set or Legendary Boots with movement speed
(Best Boots would be Ice Climbers with 12% movement speed.)
Bracers - Lacuni Prowlers
Chest - Tyrael's Might
Pants - Inna's Temperance

You can combine them as you want.

The best solution would be
Lacuni Prowlers with crit
Ice Climbers with movement speed
rare Pants
IK Chest

If you can't afford Ice Climbers with movement speed then there are 2 other good good options.

Solution #2
Ice Climbers without movement speed
Lacuni Prowlers
Inna's Temperance with Strength
IK Chest

Solution #3
Rare, Set or Legendary Boots with movement speed
Lacuni Prowlers with crit
IK Chest
rare Pants

If you can't afford good Lacuni Prowlers then there are 3 other options.

Solution #4
Rare, Set or Legendary Boots with movement speed
Tyrael's Might
rare Pants and Bracers

Solution #5
Rare, Set or Legendary Boots with movement speed
Inna's Temperance with Strength
IK Chest
rare Bracers

Solution #6
Ice Climbers without movement speed
Tyrael's Might
Inna's Temperance with Strength
rare Bracers

There are many ohter possible combinations of these items to reach 24% movement speed.
The decison is dependant how good your other gear is and which items you can afford.


I'm playing with following combination:
Tyrael's Might
IK Boots or Flamewalker (dependant what I do)
Rare Pants
Rare Bracers with crit

Thunder Barbarian (HotA)

This guide is for solo farming on low monster power. The name come from the Rune Thunderstrike or the Rune Rolling Thunder of the skill Hammer of the Ancients. This is a very effectiv and fast playstyle and makes a lot of fun.

Skills

Mainattack
Hammer of the Ancients (Thunderstrike)
best choice
cost 20 fury
325% weapon damage - in front of you
1% increased crit for 5 fury you have
Whenever you kill an enemy with HotA, every other enemy within 10y is stunned.

Hammer of the Ancients (Rolling Thunder)
alternative if you have items which reduce  HotA fury costs
cost 20 fury
275% weapon damage 22yards in front of you
1% increased crit for 5 fury you have

Hammer of the Ancients (Birthright)
alternative if you have very good gear and want more drops
cost 20 fury
325% weapon damage - in front of you
1% increased crit for 5 fury you have
Critical hits have a 10% chance to drop treasure or health globes.

This runes work better then rune smash on low monster power, because smash has a lower aoe effect.
Thunderstrike is the best rune.


2nd Skill - Sprint (Marathon)
cost 20 fury
movement speed bonus 50% for 5 sec

You run faster and longer then with the rune run like the wind.


3rd skill - Batle Rage (Into the Fray)
cost 20 fury
increase damage by 15%
critical hit chance 3%
critical hits generate 15 fury


4th skill - Wrath of the Berserker (Thrive on Chaos)
every 25 fury you generate adds 1 second to the duration effect


5th & 6th skill - free to choose
These skills depend on your gear and playstyle.
How much additional defense do you need/want?
How do you want to start the fight if you don't have any fury?
Do you wear any items with reduced hota fury costs?
How much crit do you have and how good can you maintain 100% wotb uptime?

Fury Generator
Bash (Instigation)
WarCry (Charge) - also adds a little bit defense
Overpower (Momentum)

Offensive
Overpower (Killing Spree)

Defensive
Overpower (Crushing Advance)
WarCry (Impunity)

My suggestion is get one fury generator and depending on your gear an offensive or defensive skill.


Passiv 1+2
Ruthless + Weapon Master

Passiv 3 - free to choose
These passiv depends on your gear and playstyle and which skills you have choosen as 5th and 6th.

Fury Generator
Unforgiving (I use this)
Animosity - also adds additonal crit if you have a full rage

Offensive
Brawler

Defensive
Bloodthirst
Tough as Nails
Nerves of Steel
Superstition


Skill Calculator - Basic Skills
Skill Calculator - Example 1 with Bash + Warcry
Skill Calculator - Example 2 with Overpower + Warcry
Skill Calculattor - My Skills for MP1 with wearing Leoric's Signet and Goldskin



How this build work & Playstyle

For a smooth and fast playstyle we need 2 one-hand weapons.

After generating some fury and activating battle rage our main attack is Hammer of the Ancients (HotA).

HotA costs 20 fury and we will generate 15 fury for every critical hit (18 fury if we have the passive Animosity). This means we need a high critical hit chance and we must hit more then one target most of the time.

Further we can reduce the fury costs by wearing a Stone of Jordan and/or Mara's Kaleidoscope with reduced fury costs for HotA. To reduce the fury cost is not mandatory, but it helps to have an easier start to generate fury.
Furthermore there is to say, that too much fury cost reduction can be counterproductive to maintain Wrath of the Berserker. Then you must spent your fury with spamming Battle Rage or Sprint.

More fury increases our critical hit chance of HotA.
basic 100 fury => +20% crit
We can have a way more max fury with items or passiv Animosity, which will help us a little bit.

High crit hit chance from gear + ruthless 5% + weapon master 10%+ wotb 10% + battle rage 3% + fury 20% + overpower (killing spree) 10%
=> leads to very high critchance (70-100%)

The mechanic that we spent and generate fury in the same time, is the basic to maintan Wrath of the Berserker.
To increase our uptime of Wrath of the Berserker we must attack constantly, therefore we have sprint which helps us with traveling between groups of monsters. Further we must decrease the time to loot, which is often a problem for many players. You can't loot all and you must loot fast to be effective.

Items

We fight with 2x one hand weapons.
The mainhand should be an axe or mace for additonal crit.
Both should have high dps, a socket and critical hit chance and if you can afford strength.
Also an Echoing Fury without critical hit chance is a good option. The %fear doesn't bother us, because most monsters should die with one hit.

24% Movement Speed is for every farming barbarian a must have.

Our belt should have life steal and 15 additional fury.

Rings:
For Farming exp I suggest Leoric's Signet and a Hellfire Ring.
If you don't farm exp or don't want wear a Leoric's Signet, you should take a rare one with critical hit chance or a Stone of Jordan for reduce fury cost.

Critical Hit Chance is the most important stat after reaching a good amount of Strength, Vitality and All Resistance.

If you have 2 perfect emeralds in your weapons then in the most cases you don't need any additonal critical hit damage to oneshot most monsters. Additional critical hit damage will only increase your charakter screen dps, but not your real dps or your farm speed.

Thats why the 2nd important stat for you will be increased attack speed (ias) to reduce the time where you stand still and attack.


minimum Startgear for MP0

Weapons (Mace or Axe)
800 dps with >60% crit and a socket (best emeralds you can afford)

Gloves, Belt, Helm, Shoes
cheap IK Set Pieces

Chest
cheap Tyrael'S Might with Strength and maybe low vitality

Shoulder
cheap Vile Ward with Strength or rare with Vitality, Strength, all resistance

Pants
rare with Vitality >190, All Resistance, 2 Socket

Wrist
rare with critical hit chance >4%, Vitality >120, (Strength)

Amulet
rare with critical hit chance >9%, Vitality >180, (Strength, Socket)

Ring #1
Your best Hellfire Ring with Strength. If you don't have one now take a rare ring linke ring #2.

Ring #2
rare with critical hit chance >5%, Strength >100, (Socket, Vitality)



Barbarian Guide Overview

Uberboss Stun Build

This barbarian build is for killing the ubers and helping to controll them with stuns. You can wear your normal gear which provides most damage and most survibility. Two 1hand weapons would be more optimal then a 2hand weapon, because of the faster attack speed.

 If you must increase your damage you should buy following weapon. "The Three Hundredth Spear"
High damage, a socket and high weapon throw damage would be ideal.



A further item to increase your damage would be a Stone of Jordan with 30% increased damage against elites. Reduced Weapon Throw fury cost is only useful if you also have a belt with reduced weapon throw fury cost otherwise it would be counter productive. You should have a total of 8 or 9 reduced fury cost. If you have 10 it won't work and your weapon throw will cost 10 fury and not 0 fury as estimated.

Skills

 

Skill #1 (Left Mouse)
Weapon Throw (Throwing Hammer)

Skill #2 (Right Mouse)
Ancient Spear (Dread Spear)

Skill #3 (1)
Overpower (Crushing Advance)

Skill #4 (2)
Wrath of the Berserker (Thrive on Chaos)

Skill #5 (3)
Battle Rage (Into the Fray)

Skill #6 (4)
War Cry (Impunity)

Passiv #1
Ruthless

Passiv #2
Weapons Master

Passiv #3
No Escape

Skill Calculator


Alternative if you have 8 or 9 reduced fury cost for weapon throw.
You can change Battle Rage rune into Marauder's Rage or Bloodshed for more damage or 3rd Passiv No Escape for a defensive passiv.

If you have reduced fury cost for weapon throw and battle rage (into the fray) and no escape you will gain to much fury and you must spent it with spamming battle rage, because if you are at full rage you won't get enough rage for keeping wrath of the berserker all the time.

Ancient Spear is for the start of the fight to get rage and later to heal yourself.
Overpower is your defensive button.

Ubers

King Leoric and Mahgda
The difficult's encounter on high monster power.

Two Strategies
1. All focus King Leoric

2. You stun Mahgda. All other stay on King Leoric and kill the skeletons, which are summoned by him, because they could be a problem for you. It's very important that you don't damage Mahgda to much or she will be immune and summon her adds. Sure you can damage her lower then 75%, but then you should cordinate it with your team mates, that they help you to kill her summoned adds as fast as possible.


Siege Breaker and Zoltun Kulle
Two Strategies
1. A melee or a well geared cm wizard tank Siege Breaker on the left or right side of the room. You and the other group members focus and kill Zoltun Kulle. Your stuns will help your group and especially your ranged partners to stay alive againts Zoltun Kulle.

2. You tank Siege Breaker on the left or right side of the room. The other group members focus and kill Zoltun Kulle. If you have problems with tanking Siege Breaker, you can wear a shield and/or use a loh weapon in your second slot. Damage should not be your assignment as long as Zoltun Kulle is alive.

Keep in mind, that you don't stun Siege Breaker if he grasps one of your team mates, because he won't let him free if you stun him during your team mate is grasped.


Ghom and Raknoth
This is the easiest encounter. Just focus with all other group members ghom, but if your group will move him out of the cloud you must switch to Raknoth. Other tactic is that you stay all time on Raknoth. Only problem for you are the small adds, which should be killed by your group members aoe damage.


Barbarian Guide Overview

Keyfarmer (Barbarian) - Part II from II

This is the second part of my guide. Here you can find part I.

We already talked about gear and weapon choices.
Here you can see my Skorn. It was cheap, but it's very effective.

Furthermore I wear a Hellfire Ring, IK helm, IK belt, IK boots and Tyrael's Might.

I have following stats unbuffed without follower

Charakter Screen Damage: 93.939
Life 45.115
Armor 5.172 (63,29%)
All Resistance 542
Life Steal 2.9%


Strength: 1.960
Vitality: 1.143
critical hit chance 48,5 %
critical hit damage 436%

Keywarden - Act I - Farming Route

Startquest: 9. The Imprisoned Angel - The Cursed Hold

Waypoint: The Festering Woods
2 Elite Packs inside Warrior's Rest and Crypt of the Ancients

1-2 Elite Packs in the Festering Woods

Waypoint: Leoric's Manor
running back
1-2 Elite Packs outside

Waypoint: Cemetry of the Forsaken
1-2 Elite Packs inside the Defiled Crypts

Keywarden
Waypoint: Fields of Misery
This area is big and the Keywarden can be everywhere.

 

 

Keywarden - Act II - Farming Route

Startquest: 8. The Black Soulstone - Soulstone Chamber

Preparation: Get Checkpoint in Vault of Assasin 
You can find it in Desolate Sands, therefore use low Monster Power and use Sprint to find it. Get checkpoint then change skills and leave game and start your farming session on higher Monster Power.

Start Checkpoint Vault of Assasin
4-5 Elite Packs

Waypoint: Road to Alcarnus
1-2 Elite Pack in Alcarnus (Alternative if you don't get 5 Nephalem Valor Buffs)

Keywarden
Waypoint: Path to the Oasis
Start your run from the sout of the Dahlgur Oasis.

 

Keywarden - Act III - Farming Route

Startquest: 7. Heart of Sin - Kill Azmodan

Waypoint: The Core of Arreat
2-3 Elite Packs

Waypoint: Tower of the Damned Level 1
run in a circle back to the waypoint
1-2 Elite Packs

Waypoint: The Bridge of Korsikk
this area could be a little bit harder. If you have problems use next step.
2-3 Elite Packs

Waypoint: The Keep Depths Level 1
going down to Level 2
2-3 Elite Packs

Keywarden
Waypoint: Stonefort



Barbarian Guide Overview

Keyfarmer (Barbarian)- Part I from II

This barbarian guide is for key farming or group play on high monster power.
I can farm solo with moderate gear on mp8. Sure it could be a little bit faster with better gear, but it's ok for me.

To farm on high monster power you need enough survivability, damage and life return. One cheap method is to use the skill Rend with Blood Lust and Rend works at the best with a 2hand weapon, this leads us to following skill set.

Skill Set

Skill #1 (Left Mouse)
Our main fury generator and damage skill will be Cleave or Bash. There are many different combinations possible. I prefer Cleave with Broad Sweep.

Cleave (Broad Sweep)
generates 5 fury - 175% aoe weapon damage
The best solution in my opinion, because of the aoe damage.

Bash (Punish)
generate 8 fury - 165 weapon damage - increase damage 8% 5 sec after using bash, stacks 3 times 

Punish provides most single target damage and also increase rend aoe damage, but you are dependent on rend for aoe damage. 

Bash (Onslaught)
generate 8 fury - 165% weapon damage - 2 strikes for 25% weapon damage
Bash provides more fury, but that's not really essential. It has less aoe damage, but a little bit more single target damage.

Cleave (Rupture)
generates 5 fury - 140% aoe weapon damage - enemies explode for 85% weapon damage 8y radius
This rune is very bad, because monsters die to slow to get enough damage from this rune.

Skill #2 (Right Mouse)
Rend (Blood Lust)
cost 20 fury - 700% aoe weapon damage over 5 sec - 9% life leech
This skill heals us and adds further aoe damage.

Skill #3 (1)
Overpower (Crushing Advance)
12 sec cooldown - 165% aoe weapon damage - redirect 35% incoming damage over 4 sec
We use this skill, because it's reduce 35% of our incoming damage for 4 sec. This helps us to survive nasty elite packs.

Skill #4 (2)
Wrath of the Berserker (Insanity)
This skill helps us to melt elite packs. For many elite packs we will need longer then 15 sec, but it's very helpful against elite monster with frozen ability.

Skill #5 (3)
Battle Rage (Marauder's Rage)
Increase our damage bonus to 30% and critical hit chance by 3%.

Skill #6 (4)
War Cry (Impunity)
Increase armor and resistance by 20%.

Passiv #1
Ruthless

Passiv #2
Weapons Master

Passiv #3
If you choose a offensive or defensive passiv depends on your gear. If you have very good damage and enough defensive, you can get Bloodthirst (gain 3% of all damage done as life). This skill will help you against elite packs with reflect damage.

* Defensive
Nerves of Steel or Tough as Nails for more armor.
Superstition redcues all non physical damage by 20%.

*Offensive
Brawler increases your damage by 30% as lons as there are 3 enemies within 8 yards.

I prefer a defensive skill.


Skill Calculator

Gear

Overview
I recommend 40.000 life, ~500 all resistance, 90.000 damage whitout warcry, battle rage and follower.
I wear a hellfire ring and socket a ruby into my helm slot for additional experience.

Weapon
2 Hand Weapon (Axe, Mace or Sword) preferable Skorn.

Skorn should have high dps (>1200), high strength (>320) and high critical hit damage (>185).
This skorn should not be this expensive.

If you have more money to spent, then we will look for more dps and the +1 random magic properties. The most useful and also most expensive are following properties.

*) Damage Dealt is converted to Life
*) additional Strength
*) Vitality


Radiant Star Emerald
If you can afford, buy a Radiant Star Emerald for your weapon. If you can't afford take a cheaper emerald.


Mighy Belt
There are many solutions, the cheapest method will be a Immortal King's Tribal Binding.
Your belt should have following stats.

Damage Dealt is converted to Life
Increases Cleave Damage by 13-14%.


Movement Speed
All fight's last longer, but for searching after the keywarden I would suggest 24% movement speed. It's not mandatory, but I would suggest 24%, because we don't have sprint. If you are only farming on high monster power and aren't interested in key runs, then you don't need it.

There are 4 pieces with 12% movement speed, which are a reasonable solution to this problem.

Boots
Bracers - Lacuni Prowlers
Chest - Tyrael's Might
Pants - Inna's Temperance

I think all depends on how much money you have. Items such as Immortal King's Eternal Reign (Chest),  Ice Climbers (Boots) with movement speed  or Lacuni Prowlers with critical hit chance are very expensive.

Following ranking by me, cheapest method first. I wear the cheapest method as long I can afford an Immortal King's Chest and Lacuin Prowlers with critical hit chance and strength. (method 3b)

1. Tyrael's Might + Boots
2. Tyrael's Might + Lacuni Prowlers with critical hit chance + Ice Climbers without movement speed
3a. IK Chest + Lacuni Prowlers with critical hit chance + Ice Climbers without movement speed + Inna's temerpance with strentgh
3b. IK Chest + Lacuni Prowlers with critical hit chance + Boots
4. IK Chest + Lacuni Prowerls with critical hit chance + Ice Climbers with movement speed


2 pieces Immortal King's Set
These are mandatory for very cheap 60 resistance to all elements.
For a starting gear set I can recommend Helm, Belt and / or Boots.

Ring
Stone of Jordan is very good for this build and for higher monsterpower.
Increased damage against elites should be very high. (25-30%)
Increased cleave damage should be 12%. (maximum)

The 2nd ring should be a hellfire ring if you are interested in leveling.


Shoulders
minimum requirements:
high strength (>200), vitality,

Legs
minimum requirements:
viality (>150), all resistance, 2 sockets,

Gloves
minimum requirements:
9% critical hit chance, strength or vitality, critical hit damage or all resistance,

Ring, Amulet
minimum requirements:
critical hit chance, strength and / or vitality,

Wrist
minimum requirements:
all resistance, strength and / or vitality,



In the second part I will post my stats, screenshots and farming routes to get 5 fast stacks before killing the key warden.

If you have any questions about skills and runes or gear, feel free to ask me in the comments.



Barbarian Guide Overview

The Big Barbarian Guide - Overview

I'm not a big fan of ww/sprint builds, so I tried many different skills to have fun and be efficient.

This is an overview post, where I will link to all my different mini barbarian guides.

WW / RLTW (Tornado) Basic Guide

Keyfarmer on high Monster Power - Part I
Keyfarmer on high Monster Power - Part II

Uberboss Stun Build

Uberboss Damage Build

Cleave Blow Up Barbarian - fast solo farm build for low Monster Power

Thunder Barbarian (HotA) - fast solo farm build for low Monster Power